Rue How-To: Personalized Welcome Mat

If you visited Rue La La at all last month, you probably saw our April login page. (If not, peep it here.) A personalized welcome mat? Needless to say, I was inspired.

One trip to Home Depot, a few printouts, and some work with an X-ACTO® knife later, my front porch has serious personality. Here’s how to create your own.

What you’ll need:

Door mat (about $10 at Home Depot)

Black spray paint ($2)

Stencils – I printed mine on regular printer paper, in a few different sizes

X-ACTO knife

Scissors

Thumbtacks

Newspaper

Tape measure, if you want to be precise

How to do it:

Print out your mat message. (Need an idea? How about a Rueism?) If you have heavier paper, it might make the cutting process a bit easier, but I used regular and it worked well.

Decide what size your font should be by placing the pages on the mat and eyeing them from standing level. If you can’t read it clearly, it’s too small.

Use the X-ACTO knife to carefully cut out the letters. Do this on a safe surface, like a thick piece of cardboard or magazine (I used an old Rue La La box). Make sure to save the letters that need fill-ins, like Es and Os.

Go outside (inhaling toxins is no fun) and place your stencil plus fill-ins – tape measure optional – on the mat where you would like the message.

Secure the pages and pieces with thumbtacks. Don’t be modest – the spray will cause lightweight paper to blow around a bit, and you want these as stable as possible.

Cover the rest of the mat with newspaper to prevent the paint from spreading.

Spray the stencils completely.

Let dry for a minute or two, then reveal!

By Julia Ivins, Staff Writer

What will your welcome mat message be? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us at @ruelala, then check out our Rue How-To column every Wednesday.

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